ER Travel Budget

[Katsmeow]

After DH retired 3 years ago and I semi-retired we took one "big" trip to London for 2 weeks with us and 2 teenagers. We spent about $15k for this. We did feel it was a good time to do this and it was a fun trip. However, it did confirm to me what I already thought which was that I no longer really enjoy traveling all that much. So in the other 2 years since then our travel has been more $1k a year entirely to visit family.

 

[Lagniappe]

I budget $10K per year for travel in my conservative spending plan. Last year I spent about $7K, including six weeks in Europe. This year I will likely spend the full budgeted amount - a long trip to Europe, a couple of weeks in South America, a trip to northern California, and some still to be allocated for a family trip around the holidays.

I am finding that my travel has changed since I RE'd. Rather than paying several thousand for a week or two on the beach in Hawaii, I spend less and stay longer in less expensive places, or places where I have family and friends (i.e., free or cheap lodging). And I am enjoying my trips so much more. In my less conservative budget, which I may adopt after a 5 or so years if there is no major market drama, I double my travel spending. At this point, I don't think I could possibly spend that much.

 

[Sarah in SC]

GotaDimple and H20 dude, I would be happy to share our experiences with selecting wonderful housesitters who trade pet care for a free place to stay. We are leaving in a week or so for 7 weeks, and have the most wonderful folks coming to stay with our 5 dogs and 5 cats while we are away. Not only couldn't we afford boarding for so many, the trauma of being kennels versus living in their own home would be too much for our animals.
Key is to have something to offer (nice location, amenities) to attract good candidates, then be able to interview your possibles to see if they are a good match. Realistic expectations and lots of communication are also important.
This has been so much easier than relying on friends and family or local teens to manage our household and makes us feel better about being away.

 

[LitGal]

DH and I average about $4,000/yr., but that reflects some specific circumstances:

1. We travel an average of 3 wks./yr. to visit family and friends in CA and FL. Those trips include a mix of VRBO rentals, Best Westerns, and staying with the folks we are visiting. We eat out once/day at most, and buy groceries to cook a lot.

2. DH can't travel outside of US for medical reasons, and finds travel here difficult; so our budget reflects those constraints. We would travel more if we could.

3. When I travel outside US with girlfriends, the budget goes up another $3-4000.

Also, a note to Hiredgun-- It seems you have a wonderful opportunity to make priceless family memories. While DH and I did travel some with our son when he was growing up, it was usually to visit family and friends, only occasionally to see the world (ie., U.S., though he's probably been to Disneyworld about 5 times). We couldn't ER until ages 59 and 62, after he was grown and gone.

If we'd had the cash, freedom, time (and the health of that earlier season in life), I would have taken those five years, spent the $20,000/yr., and take the family to see the world. How many families get that chance?

When those five years are over, and your son grown, you can adjust your plans and budget. But you can never get those five years back, or his adolescence, or his willingness and availability to travel with you. What gifts!!!!!!! (IMHO)

FWIW....

 

[Golden sunsets]

Yeah, I recently revised my Quicken habits and classify boarding as a travel expense rather than "dog". Having three dogs (one inherited from daughter when she expatriated) I've had some boarding bills in excess of $1,000. I'm a sucker for that extra "play time" as it soothes my guilt for leaving them. Tempted to try house/pet sitters but DW not too keen on that.

Ha Our budget has been $20,000, although we haven't spent quite that much yet, but when I read the above, it caused me to check what our boarding costs are (two dogs - one adopted from daughter when she couldn't take hers to work anymore) and when you combine our travel with our kennel budget it is 24,000. We spend 6-8 weeks a year in Mexico and another 2 - 4 traveling elsewhere in the US or foreign capitols - Planning on Amsterdam/Brussells/Bruge this fall.

I honestly think if we didn't have pets - we would travel more - but then who would greet us so enthusiastically each and every time we return home regardless of whether we have been gone for 15 minutes or 6 hours.

 

[Golden sunsets]

You're fortunate that your teenage son wants to travel with you. We had to quit traveling as a family when our teenage son became so ornery that I was afraid someone might get hurt and it might have been me.

Oh boy do I remember those days. Our DS is now 28 and asks us how we put up with him while we were travelling with him as a teenager. DD was an angel for the most part, but DS constantly governed the itinerary, from not rising in the AM until he was good and ready, to getting up to take a shower as it was time for us to leave for our dinner res. But we forged on. Those trips were some of the most memorable to all of us and I wouldn't trade one of his sulky moments for the pure joy of spending time together while viewing some of the wonders of the world.

Although our kids visit us often now, and are thrilled to have us visit them, they are too busy to vacation with us and have their own adventures to experience, sans parents. We pray that this will change when they have their own little ones and perhaps will take a trip with the grandparents tagging along.

 

[Major Tom]

We are leaving in a week or so for 7 weeks, and have the most wonderful folks coming to stay with our 5 dogs and 5 cats while we are away.

Sarah - do all your pets get along harmoniously, or is there the occasional bit of hissing and growling between certain members? Just wondering, as 5 dogs and 5 cats sounds like quite a menagerie, albeit a joyous one!

 

[BellBarbara]

Great topic! We budgeted 12K to start, but agreed we would spend more to start (we can afford it). We will go over this year as we did a couple weeks in Italy, a cruise, a couple weeks in California (we are in Boston) and will do a couple weeks in the Outer banks in the fall. Also we rent an expensive 5 bedroom lake house in NH once a year and all the kids and grandkids come. That sort of breaks the budget. We did get an 8K refund on our last half year of work, so that paid for Italy.

My husband is somewhat uptight about money (even though we are spending about 85% of our budget)....so he is suggesting we cut back. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I think we should budge 20K a year for 5 years, then cut back.

 

[BellBarbara]

We love to travel, so it seems dumb to cut back here. I would prefer to cut back somewhere else.

 

[Meadbh]

I have a question about travel budgets. When you are away from home, do you count groceries as travel expenses, or do you account for them in your grocery budget? If you were to rent a house or condo on the beach, you could make all your own meals and save a bundle by avoiding eating out. If you were staying for a month or three, the difference would be substantial.

 

[Katsmeow]

In my budget I include food in vacation as well as fuel if we are driving. I reduce my normal budget by the amount I won't be spending.

I also include dog/cat boarding in vacation rather than pet. For short trips the cost of boarding is the largest cost.

 

[kmt1972]

My plan is $30K or so for myself, DW, and DS.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Tom that is a good question. And no, I actually have to keep the old dog segregated from the others at all times, as the younger female will attack her. It makes things a bit complicated to say the least.
We have a couple of cats that disagree with each other, but because they all can go outside, it lessens the intensity of the discord. We have 4 fenced acres in the country, so all but the old dog stay outside during the day.
Having a house sitter is a huge factor in our travel plans, and we booked our folks coming next week back in November.

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks Sarah - was just wondering, as I have 3 cats in a 280 sq foot studio who get along most of the time, with the occasional bit of discord from time to time, though nothing too serious.

I carry the dream in my head of a pet family with complete harmony between all members, but realize this is an ideal that is not always achieved - just as with human families

With the number of pets you have, a house sitter you can trust is a definite advantage (and probably a fun time for them too).

 

[Sarah in SC]

Well without delving too deep in animal husbandry here...cats are really solo animals, and multi-cat households are hard to manage in the best of circumstances.

So don't feel bad that yours aren't always getting along because it just simply isn't in their nature. I have all females right now, as I just lost my 16 year old orange peacemaker. Two calicoes get along fine, tabby and black/white get along, and gray keeps her own counsel. But they don't get along across those borders. All are 5+ years old so they aren't going to get better.

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks Sarah - I feel better already. As a bit of a reclusive personality myself, I can empathize with my kitties' desire to not be bothered by others

And now - back to the main topic of discussion......

 

[Lagniappe]

I have a question about travel budgets. When you are away from home, do you count groceries as travel expenses, or do you account for them in your grocery budget? If you were to rent a house or condo on the beach, you could make all your own meals and save a bundle by avoiding eating out. If you were staying for a month or three, the difference would be substantial.

I count groceries, dining out, entertainment and gasoline while traveling as a travel expense. I do a lot of long term stays and shop locally, but like to track how much the total trip costs me, not just the incremental amount.

 

[Jackson D]

Our budget for travel in 1st year of retirement was $25,000. I try to include my 3 children in my plans but it is getting harder since they are all out of school and have jobs/girlfriends/wives to consider. I think that over the next few years my travel expenses will vary hugely as the opportunities to travel with family could include anywhere from 2 to 8 people. Thankfully, my kids are now able to pay some of their own travel expenses since they are employed. In order to entice them to travel with us, I do tend to pick up most of the tab. Our travel budget is totally discretionary and would be the first thing to cut back if necessary, but my wife and I figure time is short and our list of places to go is long. Next up- hiking on the Kenai Peninsula and Denali in Alaska.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I have a question about travel budgets. When you are away from home, do you count groceries as travel expenses, or do you account for them in your grocery budget? If you were to rent a house or condo on the beach, you could make all your own meals and save a bundle by avoiding eating out. If you were staying for a month or three, the difference would be substantial.

We include groceries in our travel expenses. We spend a couple of winter months in a condo.

 

[1st Tee]

Will RE this year and wondering how much everyone sets aside for an annual travel budget? I expect I will travel more than usual the next 5 years (son just starting high school) as this will be the prime time for the family to travel together.

In other words, I expect a larger travel budget for the first 5 year of RE. Want to go to Europe and travel a ton around the U.S. I think $20K-25K a year for the first 4 or 5 years would be reasonable. Keep in mind, I expect the amount to DRAMATICALLY (i.e. maybe 1/5 of that) drop off after that time, but want to enjoy the next few years when the family will be together and my son won't think we are cramping his style (i.e. I get that it may happen sooner than I have planned for, but I know he wants to travel with us in high school). Thoughts?

Congratulations on being able to ER.

The first 3 years of ER the two (out of college now) went with us.
It was ~ $27k for a little over two weeks in Europe.
Going to Alaska, Hawaii, etc was a lot less.

Kids are now in their mid 20's (single) and still want to go with mom and dad on vacation.
We don't do that anymore and mom and dad really enjoy spending time together.
This last year we went on a vacation with another couple and that was a lot of fun!

So our travel budget is down from when we would take the whole family.

 

[martyp]

I have a question about travel budgets. When you are away from home, do you count groceries as travel expenses, or do you account for them in your grocery budget? If you were to rent a house or condo on the beach, you could make all your own meals and save a bundle by avoiding eating out. If you were staying for a month or three, the difference would be substantial.

In the past, when we took "big" trips, say to Europe, we would only be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. We ate out nearly all of our meals and didn't count food or fuel again what we normally spent at home. If I was going to stay someplace for a month or two then I would budget differently.

 

[sn2792]

We budget $10,000 a year for the two of us. We take 2 cruises a year and sometimes a long weekend trip somewhere. We include gas and food as vacation costs and reduce our grocery and fuel budget during vacation months.

 

[BellBarbara]

We include ALL expenses related to travel: pet sitter, gas, airport parking, meals for the most part. The only time we will not include meals is when we are "set" somewhere for 1 week or more with a kitchen, and the amount of spending on groceries is the about the same as we would have spent at home. then we exclude that.

The pet sitting thing is killing us. We have an anxious dog who cannot be kenneled so we have a girl come stay at our house but it's expensive $50 a day. We want to be snow birds this winter and are trying to figure out what to do. I want to take the dog, my husband does not really like the dog (unrealistic about pet behaviors). He is trying to force me to get my son to watch him in his condo - which is unrealistic as he works long hours. The dog will be totally anxious in some other house and alone so long.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I feel for you Bellbarbara. Our pets are precious to us and we hate to leave them for 7 weeks straight, but taking your pet with you to the warm climate may not be a great idea even if you were able to convince your DH. I would imagine you would be out of the condo a lot and worry that the pet was having anxiety. That would diminish your own enjoyment. We took one of out pets with us to the beach for a week when a friend lent us his cottage and it was a huge mistake. We knew he was miserable (and barking) while we were on the beach and I was worried what he might do in the way of damage to the unit. Do you know for a fact that the pet doesn't do well at the kennel for the entire time? Is it possible that the pet becomes used to the new surroundings after a few hours or days at the most? Most pets do.

 

[Huston55]

Thanks Sarah - was just wondering, as I have 3 cats in a 280 sq foot studio who get along most of the time, with the occasional bit of discord from time to time, though nothing too serious.

I carry the dream in my head of a pet family with complete harmony between all members, but realize this is an ideal that is not always achieved - just as with human families

With the number of pets you have, a house sitter you can trust is a definite advantage (and probably a fun time for them too).

280SF or 2800SF?

If it's the former, you have my ultimate respect. I thought the ~900SF condo that DW and I occupied in SF was small. I used to joke that the real estate agent called it a "condo" and, I called it "a closet attached to a view." I will say though, that we loved living there and realized that we really didn't need all the stuff from larger homes we'd lived in.